A Film at 45: Rock 'n' Roll High School

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Hello everyone, and once again,
welcome back to the year nineteen seventy nine

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and a Film buys a limited series
A film at forty five. I am

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David Burns and I'm Scott Hoffman.
I we're coming back, dusting off the

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end of a decade that changed cinema
forever with a fresh look at modern classics

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and hidden gems that we can't stop
watching. Except we're getting into a new

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year, and this one so far
is become a crazy year. We've barely

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gotten into it, and seventy nine
is going to be crazy. When you

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off the train, off the hook, off the Oh my goodness, Well,

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Scott, as the sky School motto
goes, winning isn't the most important

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thing, it's the only thing.
It's time to head to Vince Lombardi High

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School for some Roger Corman teenage fool
of ree and of course some rock and

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roll with Scott. Welcome to rock
and Roll High School. Rock and Roll

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High School. I am miss Togaw
and I am the new principal of this

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school. And who are you.
I'm Rick Randall. Rock and Roller rock

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and Roll High School. Rock and
Roll High School, Scott. For our

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listeners who haven't visited this comedy,
how would you describe this film to them?

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So this is a doozy at the
height of their hut, at the

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height of their punk rock powers,
the iconic Ramones take over a small town

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and turn the local high school upside
down. The music comedy adventure follows their

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number one fan, Riff Randall,
who leads her class on a quest to

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see the Ramones in concert, get
laid and give their principal finger. Will

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your School be Next? Executive produced
by Roger Corman, directed by Alan Arkish

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and Piranha's Joe Dante, starring Supream, Queen of Halloween, PJ Souls,

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the incomparable Clint Howard, Vincent Van
Patten and featuring that guy Dick Miller,

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the dynamic duo of Paul Bartel and
Mary Wornoff of nineteen eighty six is chopping

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mall and of course the Ramones and
their feature film debut. Yeah, feature

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film debut for sure, Absolutely so, Scott. This is a very goofy,

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strange, odd film. Yes,
basically in the vein of a rocker

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cornpin film for sure. My first
reaction after I saw it, Now,

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this is my first time seeing this, so this is fresh perspective. After

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finishing the movie the first time,
my reaction was, what did I just

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watch? Yeah? Was this under
the Cherry Moon? Was this Howard the

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Duck? Like it's so weird,
it's so out there. And then having

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some time to kind of look back
on a little bit, I know Dayton,

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our friend at docum Base seventy seven, would say the one redeeming quality

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of this movie is the soundtrack,
and I kind of disagree with that.

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In hindsight, I can see how
this quickly started to pick up a cult

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following. I feel like it has
kind of punk rock roots to it because

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it has all the the the of
the cast of characters that I just mentioned

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is just a sample of it.
It's very much a punk rock kind of

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scene in the movie world right.
Yeah, And the choice of the Ramones

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at the time that they're doing this
with the Ramones is the perfect fit.

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So I'm not going to say this
is the perfect comedy. I'm not going

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to say this is, you know, the most amazing piece of cinema ever.

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No. Yeah, but it is
a very very interesting time capsule into

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this moon in the movie. In
the music scene. Yeah, I mean,

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did I love this film? No? But I didn't hate it hate

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it like some people do, because
you're right, it has a cult following,

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you know, and the way I
look at it, this is someone's

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art, you know, so I'm
not going to go trashing on it or

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anything like that. It takes a
lot of work to make something, you

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know, of this caliber, and
you know that we've talked about that before,

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you know, so I always try
to find something good in a project,

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and there was a few times I
laughed in this Scott, I've got

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to say. And I love PJ
Souls, Yes, yes, very easy

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to love Pj's souls. Yeah,
she is so like charming and she is

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anything that she is in. But
this is, you know, after Carrie,

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after Halloween. She's definitely a teenager. I think she was like twenty

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six when she made this. She's
twenty eight, but very vibrant, very

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young. Like I'd totally buy that
she's a high school student in this movie.

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Yeah, absolutely. And you know
what I find interesting is you know

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you've already mentioned it, but this
is like the third time we've talked about

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her on a podcast. Seventy six
we did Carrie, you know you and

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I did in Chad cochrane. We
did Halloween, the last first season of

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a film at forty five. Now
we're talking about her in this. But

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something else that we've talked about that
they really did a lot in the seventies

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is they got a lot of older
people to play teenagers. Yeah. I

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mean she was twenty eight years old
when she did this. We did we

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talked about this movie. We did
Grease last year. You know, I

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don't know what it was because today
obviously they're gonna use teenagers in those roles

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for the most part. Yeah,
but I wouln't see anybody else in PJ.

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Soul. I thought she was awesome
as Riff Randall. Awesome. Yeah,

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Yeah, I think she was exactly
who she needed to be, And

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I think early on in this movie
it establishes what kind of a movie it's

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going to be. If you remember
the scene where the freshman is standing there

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on the looking at the map saying
you are here, and he's standing on

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an X, So you know this
is going to be in the vein of

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like airplane or you know, something
that's obviously having fun with itself being pretty

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goofy. Yeah, it felt kind
of like the Beatles' Help, So it's

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very much centered around a band,
very much goofy kind of comedy. But

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I think her as the central character
was great. First of all to see

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her in a lead role, Yes, that was wonderful to see. And

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second of all, her and the
rest of the cast seemed to have an

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amazing time making this. When I
look through notes, I didn't see anything

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about you know, I think there
was some exhaustion on the part of Alan

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arkish Yep at one point, which
is where Joe Dante comes into the picture

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to finish a couple of scenes,
right, But it seems like everybody's having

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fun. Yeah, And I mean, it's a Roger Corman film, So

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come on, you know what you're
getting when you're going into Roger Corman film.

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Okay, yeah, So you're not
going to get some Oscar Winner Academy,

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a warmind or anything like that.
You're gonna get a quirky, fun

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little film. And that's exactly what
he wanted. You know, he wanted

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to go back to his roots a
little bit that he did in the sixties.

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He wanted to do it again with
a new cast, and you know,

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with something about music, modern music
that was you know, during this

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time period. And that's what we
got. You know, I find an

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interesting day Young, who plays Kate
Rambo. She I really liked her character,

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by the way, Yeah, I
felt very sorry for her when she

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wanted Tom and Tom wanted Riff,
you know, and then it kind of

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broke your heart little bit when he
called. But then they both went,

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which was hysterical and ended up going
to a concert anyway. But Wayne,

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who as a ruddy Nose, is
with us when we do The con Men,

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but he also is with us in
Star Trek and Phaser Set the Sun.

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He would really want her autograph on
his Star Trek poster. Did you

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know that Day Young was an episode
of Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep

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Repase nine and Enterprise Intrigued? Okay, yeah, where is she a next

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Generation? So she just played like
a small character, which for those listeners,

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if you want to hear who she
plays, catch us on Phaser Set

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the Stun when we get to that
season and we'll talk about it all right.

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But yeah, she was in some
Star Trek episodes. So I just

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found that interesting. So if Wayne
you're listening to this, you're going to

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need her autograph. Yeah, well
he's going to need another alum from Rock

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and Roll High School because Clinton Howard, that's right, a former for a

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child actor on the original series.
It plays a very very unusual character Eagle

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Bowers. What like there are there
there's there are times throughout this movie when

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I said to myself, I don't
think I'm high enough to understand this movie.

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What is happening. His character has
got an office in the bathroom,

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Scott, He's got a secretary at
an office and a claqueson that goes off

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whenever a girl comes in. And
he's the you know, supposed to be

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the suave matchmaker. Yeah, I
mean he's setting up waterbeds and vans and

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you know, everything's fine. Yeah. It's a very interesting range of a

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cast in this and Clint Howard is
no exception that the Eagle Bower character.

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It's fun to see Clint Howard at
this age being this kind of central character

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and he's not you know, yes, he's doing it to make money,

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but it never see it feels like
he's you know, dastard the year he's

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got other schemes, you know,
or bad intentions or anything else like that

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when he's he's trying to be a
matchmaker. Now a matchmaker in the sense

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that he wants his friend Tom to
you know, have sex. So it's

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not necessarily like, oh, let
me set a romantic scene. No,

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it's a furry van, you know, with a waterbedd in the back,

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like come on. But he's another
character where you can just see that he's

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having a lot of fun with it. Nothing seems like it's overdone on their

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part. No, it's not.
It is goofy, but it's not.

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They're not doing over the top goofy
performances. But you did mention that Mary

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Warnoff plays a princevill tuger who was
in Chopping Mall that we talked about nineteen

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eighty six. Yeah, she played
Mary Bland, which I thought was real

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interesting. And then of course you
mentioned Paul Bartel, who's like d Movie

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Royalty right right, he was in
Chopping Mall as well. Yeah, so

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it's funny that these guys keep coming
back. And he was in Pirana too,

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Scott, Yeah, we talked about
last season. So I'd love how

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these actors just keep coming back.
We get to talk about him more and

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more, you know. Well,
and again those two actors thrust into the

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spolet here because mister mcgree and Miss
Togar obviously Miss Togar more so have very

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big roles in this movie, and
I think they're having a ton of fun

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with it. I got kind of
a Brigitte Brigitte Nielsen kind of red Sonia

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kind of vibe from Miss Togar in
this yep, Like, you know,

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all the shots are kind of setting
her up as being this intimidating kind of

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presence, and mister mcgree being this
very kind of you know, at first

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he's like opposed to everything, but
then he's kind of getting along with it,

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and it's all this kind of connective
thread of the Ramones obviously a big

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star of this movie. But you
know, I'm encountering this for the first

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time knowing how iconn of the Ramones
are as of today, but back then

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they were not. They were not
necessarily a household name. Is that fair?

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Yeah? I know that I've seen
that the Joy Ramone was a very

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anxious kind of person, even though
he was a towering front man. Yeah,

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yeah, stunt double for Howard Stern, like very tall guy. You

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know, he embraces every scene,
all four of them. They have a

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lot of fun with it. That's
why It reminded me of the Beatles' Help

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because it seems like they're just having
fun through the scenes. They're not making

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too much of it. They're bringing
in a little bit of intrigue, and

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it's a time capsule, right like
you're seeing them in their youth. You're

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seeing that original Well, I think
the lineup had changed maybe at that point,

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but you're seeing an original lineup from
the seventies. I was surprised to

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learn that at this point they had
a lot of kind of endie success.

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They were kind of the leaders of
the punk rock scene, but I don't

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know that they were necessarily getting national
airplay. And this is probably this might

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be one of the first ways that
a lot of people would discover the Remotes.

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Even though this movie itself didn't really
get wide release, it almost kind

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of toured around the country in small
bits. So they've they've got a lot

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of common So it feels like a
very good fit for the for the Remotes.

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I think so too. And Alan
Arkish, who directed this film,

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I think he did some remote their
music videos to that year, so I

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get I guess they just went hand
in hand. After he did this,

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he directed some music videos form as
well. So yeah, I think this

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is this really helped them, you
know, push them a little bit further.

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But you're right looking looking through our
glasses now, you know, as

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famous as they are back then,
they weren't really at that point. Yeah.

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I mean a lot of people knew
them, but it was kind of

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like, well, if you're cool, you know who they are, right,

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Yeah, very much fits with a
Roger Corman kind of underground kind of

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movement. I love that Joe Dante
is even involved in this, Oh me

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too, because talk about it like
a great start, like a great name

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to have associated with it. That's
just interesting to see where this came about.

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And this is the only production that
Jo Dante has built as a writer

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too. I don't know if you
knew that or not, but interesting.

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Yeah. I know both of us
are huge fans of Joe Dante, all

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of his work that he's done over
the years, so it's kind of nice

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to go back to explore some stuff
that he was doing towards the beginning of

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his career, you know, and
just seeing his you know, his fingers

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and all of this kind of stuff. And as you mentioned, you know,

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he had to do a few scenes
because Alan was hospitalized for exhaustion.

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I believe he directed the scene where
PJ. Soul sings Rock and roll High

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School in the gymnasium. He directed
the long the bathroom scene, the bathroom

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scene, and he did the telephone
booth scene. Those are the ones that

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Joe Dante had to direct. Okay, yeah, interesting. So it's kind

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of nice that you work with somebody
like that who can just fill in for

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you, you know, not miss
a beat. It's always nice to have

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that camaraderie. So that was pretty
cool. Ye, So Scott, let's

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look through the lens and what do
you got? Some of it we've already

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kind of touched on in you know, Joe Dante being having a role in

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in one of the scenes. Apparently
Huey Lewis is in this uncredited playing vice

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like Covner. Now I've tried watching
this and I can't really find his face,

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but fascinating to me. Apparently special
effects legend Rob Botein was the concert

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mouse. What what that makes that
mouse even funnier than yes, which is

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one of the scenes where I was
like, I don't know if I'm high

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enough to understand what's going on.
Scream and Steve stevens Now. He's featured

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a lot in the trailer and he's
got a very distinctive look. So it's

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Don Steele and it was bugging me
the entire time because I'm hearing his voice

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and I'm like, I know who
this is. Yeah, I know this

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voice. It's DJ Rock and Ricky
from Gremlins. Is it really? Yes?

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I yes, I love that connection. Joe connection right there has to

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be Joe Dante exactly. But yeah. So apparently this is something that started

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uh an idea from Alan Arkish and
originally he was going to call this disco

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high and when he was speaking I
think with Roger Cortman about it, he

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was like, well, disco is
not what the kids are listening to.

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This is not the kind of thing
you want to do. You want rock

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and roll. And I know that
they pursued a bunch of different bands.

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At one point, I think Cheap
Trick was being discussed, which would have

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been an interesting movie in and of
itself, but very very different Devo,

220
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which would have been way different,
way different Tom Petty, which I feel

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like would have been kind of a
you know, more of a mellow approach

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and probably wouldn't have been as fun, and apparently they were afraid of their

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other choice, Van Halen. Yeah, apparently Warner Brothers was kind of like,

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uh no, So if we can
step into our alternate reality video store

225
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for just a minute, I would
love to go right to the shelf and

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pick up the alternate reality where Van
Halen was the replacement for the Ramones.

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Because this is in seventy eight,
their debut album Van Halen had gone gold,

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right, and it's got a bunch
of iconic tracks on it, running

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with the Devil eruption You really got
me? Ain't talking about love? I

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mean, Brad Kozo, I'm talking
to you right now. Imagine this with

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the debut album as the soundtrack.
It would have been I think the same

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kind of wild kind of comedy.
I would have wanted to see them having

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fun, seeing seeing Eddie and David
Lee Roth doing this kind of movie.

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It would be absolutely Oh God,
that would be phenomenal, It really would.

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It would also kind of set their
career in a different trajectory, I

236
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think, And I'm not sure what
that would have done. But anyway,

237
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so no Disco High, Let's go
Rocket Roll High School. They finally got

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the Ramones. It wasn't a very
big budget for this one. I think

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it was only what two hundred thousand
dollars. I think it's five hundred thousand

240
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some somewhere in the neighborhood. Yeah, and it didn't, like I said

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before, it didn't really get wide
release. It's something that was kind of

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you know, toured around the country, which again seems very fitting for something

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connected with the Ramones. It didn't
really get a lot of critical acclaim.

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And I say that when thinking about
like Cisco and Ebit's review of this.

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I know that Roger Ebert basically said
I can't really recommend this movie, but

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I understand that it's you know,
going to have a hit in certain circles.

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00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:51.759
And Rodri Ebert called it. He
was like, this will not be

248
00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:55.440
a blockbuster, but it will be
a cult classic and people are just going

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to devour. Eight years later,
and I think that's true today, there

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are a lot of people that still
love this movie. It's definitely a highlight

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for in the Roger Corman world.
And as we'll talk about a bit later,

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it's one that Alan Arkish is really
proud of. Yeah, so I

253
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think it's deeff there worth to take
a look at. Yeah. Absolutely,

254
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And I always have a special place
in my heart for small budget films,

255
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So you know, I respect something
like this, and you know it maybe

256
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not like the whole thing, but
you know, I still respect the film,

257
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and you know, I still had
a good time with this one.

258
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But one of the things I found
very interesting, Scott is, I'm sure

259
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you remember the ear mail scene.
Apparently behind the behind the teacher there are

260
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some handwritten posters and they are the
double feature of Death Race two thousand,

261
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:49.720
which was directed by Paul Bartel and
Hollywood Boulevard, which was directed by Alan

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Arkish and Joe Dante. Interesting.
So I believe when we talked about chopping

263
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Mall, there was some posters too
that they so apparently they were keeping this

264
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theme going along making posters in the
background of their previous projects and stuff like

265
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that. So I always find that
interesting, yep. But another thing is,

266
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I know the movie poster they did
for this, they kind of stole

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Animal House is look, which it
makes sense, right, Yeah, And

268
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I think at the time there was
a lot of that kind of stuff going

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on. Looks like William Stout was
the artist, and it very much has

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00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:30.279
that kind of national lampoon kind of
look to it right right, which sets

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up the kind of movie this is
in ittably going to be. When I'm

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looking at the poster, it makes
me my first reaction is thinking, oh,

273
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well, there's got to be some
kind of fold gag to it right

274
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right at the back of the Mad
magazine where it becomes some other kind of

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image and you folded down the middle. But yeah, very rawdinous into that

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kind of thing, and you know
it sets it in that kind of avant

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garde kind of place on the video
shelf right. Yeah, absolutely, all

278
00:19:57.160 --> 00:20:00.079
right, man, Well, let's
score. Let's talk about the music.

279
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As we know, there is a
ton of music in this movie, especially

280
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since this can call it rock and
roll high School, of course you're going

281
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to have rock and roll music in
it. One of the things that I

282
00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:18.200
found very interesting about this and I
find it humorous. The theme song at

283
00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:22.000
the end is going over the credits. Did We Meet Somewhere Before was sung

284
00:20:22.039 --> 00:20:29.960
by Paul McCartney and Wings, but
apparently that was made for Heaven Can Wait

285
00:20:30.359 --> 00:20:34.279
for Warren Beatty but it wasn't used, so Alan Arkis apparently made a deal

286
00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:38.880
for like five hundred bucks to use
that song, but part of the deal

287
00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:48.119
was Paul Kartney did not want to
be credited. It's a little uncomfortable,

288
00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:52.559
yeah, it is. Well,
it's interesting that Paul McCartney did a song

289
00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:56.799
on this movie. So what I
didn't know and this is me being a

290
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total newbe with the Ramones. And
it's a name that they kind of adopted

291
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:06.119
for everybody. They're not actually related. They all just kind of, you

292
00:21:06.200 --> 00:21:11.559
know, adopt that name because Paul
when he would check into hotels, would

293
00:21:11.640 --> 00:21:15.599
check in as Paul Ramone m hm. So they all decided to just take

294
00:21:15.640 --> 00:21:18.759
on the last name like Joy Ramone, De d Ramone, etcetera, etcetera.

295
00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:22.839
And they've also got a lot of
so obviously the Ramones are a huge

296
00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:26.880
feature on this track. Just a
year before this was released, they had

297
00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:32.680
their four studio album Road to Ruin
that came out that had a lot of

298
00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:37.160
big songs that were associated that were
used to hearing about now, especially I

299
00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:45.559
Want to Be Sedated right, And
obviously Rock and Roll High School is one

300
00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:49.759
that eventually is released and kind of
expanded editions later on. They don't credit

301
00:21:49.759 --> 00:21:56.000
it as being written by Riff Randall, but I think that's okay. We'll

302
00:21:56.039 --> 00:21:57.359
let it go, they had,
but we'll let it go this time.

303
00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:02.000
But it does have a lot of
their hits, like you know, Teenage

304
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Lobotomy, Pinhead, Let's Creak Pop, Sorry a big Let's Creak Bop.

305
00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:11.440
I always get that wrong. I
went you around. I think that's what

306
00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:15.920
they were saying in the in the
bathroom scene. Yeah, right, So

307
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I read that that was something that
was a little uncomfortable for Joey to film.

308
00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:26.440
He was super nervous in that scene, but it it kind of endeared

309
00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:30.079
him to PJ because she was like, Oh, this guy is so adorable.

310
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He's having a hard time with this. But I probably would have struggled

311
00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:37.359
too being in there with PJ Soul. So Okah, I get it,

312
00:22:37.400 --> 00:22:40.519
I get a little uncomfortable, But
yeah, it features a lot of their

313
00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:44.480
hits. So it's kind of like
this is a gateway to the Ramones if

314
00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:47.599
you're not totally used to them,
or if you want to kind of learn

315
00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:49.839
more about them, it's a good
way to do so. And I think

316
00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:55.559
there was a great inclusion of some
some concert even though it was a stage

317
00:22:55.640 --> 00:23:00.880
concert, you know, probably a
fake concert, I imagine, but good

318
00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:03.680
to see them on stage. You
get that kind of full Ramones experience of

319
00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:08.400
being able to see them at that
age doing one of their their live shows.

320
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So I'm glad they had a chance
to do that. I think that

321
00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:14.400
concert that they had too, they
had a lot of I don't know if

322
00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:17.440
they were groupies, but a lot
of fans of the Ramones were in that

323
00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:23.680
crowd, because apparently they were like
so crazed about the Ramones and being in

324
00:23:23.680 --> 00:23:29.400
that crowd that they it freaked out
PJ souls apparently. Yeah. Yeah,

325
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:36.000
And I think that there was something
about how was it Ellen Arkish that invited

326
00:23:37.319 --> 00:23:42.640
like prominent rock journalists to attend to
the concert and you know, write stories

327
00:23:42.680 --> 00:23:48.480
about the sure is about the experience, right, very clever reviews it is.

328
00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:53.720
And they peppered the soundtrack with other
with other acts, like you've got

329
00:23:53.720 --> 00:24:00.759
some Richie Allen's in there, You've
got some Alice Cooper in there. I

330
00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:06.079
think there's some Devo, Yeah,
there's in there. Come back Jones,

331
00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:08.279
Come back Jony Joney. Is that
what it is? Yeah? Yep,

332
00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:11.680
come back Jony, Yep, yep. And I think Fleetwood Max in there.

333
00:24:12.119 --> 00:24:15.839
Yeah. I think I caught Albatross, isn't it wasn't then in there.

334
00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:22.119
Yeah, it was yep and Chuck
Berry of all things. So you

335
00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:26.240
got you get a big mix.
Yeah, so there's a lot of interesting

336
00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:29.839
things covering that. And we have
to mention Alice Cooper. Oh, I

337
00:24:29.839 --> 00:24:33.359
mean school's out come on, I
mean, come on now, the guy

338
00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:38.039
with the magic marker of course,
exactly, very fitting and this is all

339
00:24:38.119 --> 00:24:44.960
like seventies seventies rock, right,
So that's another way that you know,

340
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:48.039
if you look at this, I
wouldn't say go out and get the soundtrack

341
00:24:48.039 --> 00:24:52.880
before you see the movie. See
the movie, and again, this is

342
00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:56.200
not the most amazing thing in the
world, but it's a better experience.

343
00:24:56.240 --> 00:25:02.000
I think to watch it as a
soundtrack as a as a backdrop to the

344
00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:07.039
movie itself before going into just listening
to the soundtrack. I would say,

345
00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:10.839
if you want the soundtrack by a
Ramones album and just dive into that,

346
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:14.200
yeah, I'd agree with that.
But there's another reason too, Scott to

347
00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:21.759
see this movie. Yeah, PJ
Sols exactly exactly. All right, Dave,

348
00:25:21.880 --> 00:25:23.759
Well, we've been rocking and rolling
and whatnot. I think we've got

349
00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:26.319
to take a break, so let's
step away for a minute, and when

350
00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:30.279
we come back we'll get into the
rewind. All right, Well, let's

351
00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:36.079
let's head on over to the rewindscot
some likes, some dislikes. What you

352
00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:38.960
got? So I've mentioned a couple
likes again, this is one where I

353
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:41.440
was torn. I was like,
man, do I like this movie?

354
00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:45.920
The tortured freshman was interesting? But
I felt so bad for the guy.

355
00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:51.640
Good lord, it was a very
you know, it was a trope of

356
00:25:51.720 --> 00:25:53.440
you know, the freshman getting stuffed
in the locker and having all this torture

357
00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:56.240
and also the kind of stuff.
I kind of wanted the freshmen to stand

358
00:25:56.319 --> 00:26:00.720
up and kick some butt in the
end, you know what I mean?

359
00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:03.680
Ye, Well, so bad for
the guy. You already mentioned that the

360
00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:08.440
airplane scene I thought was very imaginative, seemed kind of long and drawn out,

361
00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:11.839
Like, man, how much all
the budget is spent on different angles

362
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:21.440
at a paper airplane? And the
scene where they're having pizza was interesting.

363
00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:26.839
So apparently they had to reshoot that
scene, like up to forty times scene

364
00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:33.480
because Dede Ramone kept messing up his
lines. Yeah. Now, I'm hoping

365
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:37.559
that they only had to redo the
scenes that Dedi was actually in and not

366
00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:42.440
the shot where Joe is being fed
sprouts and wheat germ, because that just

367
00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:48.240
seemed torturous to the poor guy.
Like I understand, like the joke is

368
00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:49.039
like, you know, oh,
we got to keep these you know,

369
00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:55.920
rockers healthy and whatever, but really, like, no, no, you

370
00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:57.680
get one take with that, you
get it wrong, that's on you,

371
00:26:57.720 --> 00:27:02.599
pal, You're to use it.
Yeah, I agree, no doubt.

372
00:27:02.920 --> 00:27:07.960
And obviously Riff I loved when she
was designated a honorary Ramone. Oh yeah,

373
00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:10.720
that was a great scene. That
was anice touch. So what about

374
00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:15.400
you? So one of my likes
of this, and I'm still laughing about

375
00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:18.240
it. I left actually like ten
fifteen minutes after the scene happened. Too.

376
00:27:18.759 --> 00:27:26.200
So when Egobauer is teaching Rambo and
Tom romance and they're in the car

377
00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:30.319
and he's showing how Tom to put
his arm around the doll, the sex

378
00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:34.119
doll. When when Tom did it
for the first time and the doll punches

379
00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:37.400
him. Yeah, I don't know
what it was about that scene, but

380
00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:42.599
I just laughed every Yeah, and
I'm still laughing about it. But you

381
00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:45.920
know, it was just it was
just one of those scenes that you just

382
00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:49.559
got to see Clinton Howard just have
a blast and just let go you know,

383
00:27:51.079 --> 00:27:56.400
be this weird character that he's playing
and just just go to town with

384
00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:00.960
it. I really liked that a
lot. Yeah. But one of the

385
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:03.640
things that I did not like in
this movie, and I'm sorry I don't

386
00:28:04.119 --> 00:28:10.319
I hated every scene the hall monitors
were in. Oh yeah, they were

387
00:28:10.359 --> 00:28:14.160
so obnoxious. They were so obnoxious, and it felt like the humor was

388
00:28:14.279 --> 00:28:18.279
forced, you know. Yeah,
I'm like, really, come on,

389
00:28:18.440 --> 00:28:21.000
guys, I see what you're trying
to do. But it just did not

390
00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:23.200
work for me. Every scene they
were in, I just I rolled my

391
00:28:23.240 --> 00:28:26.799
eyes. I really did. Yeah. Well, I mean because they also

392
00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:30.640
ratcheted up the pervinus of that too, right, Like they were just these

393
00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:36.720
ledges and it was just like,
it's actually kind of interesting. I expected

394
00:28:36.759 --> 00:28:41.200
this movie to be raunchier than it
was. Yeah. When I'm looking at

395
00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:44.759
the trailer and I'm looking at some
of the shots that they fixate on,

396
00:28:44.839 --> 00:28:48.880
and obviously it's like, you know, fixating on a woman's chest jumping around

397
00:28:48.920 --> 00:28:51.920
and bikinis and whatever, You're thinking, oh boy, here we go.

398
00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:55.680
There's going to be the gratuitous nuity
and also the kind of stuff not a

399
00:28:55.799 --> 00:29:00.640
drop of it, no at all. I mean, there's the SuDS scene.

400
00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:03.359
But I'm pretty sure they're trying to
be pretty good about, you know,

401
00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:08.160
not making it gratuitous nudity and not
making it a movie like that.

402
00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:15.039
And I think that's why the tone
of Gretel and Hansel or whatever their names

403
00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:22.000
were, the Fritzes just hit odd, Like nobody else seemed to be.

404
00:29:23.559 --> 00:29:26.200
I don't know. I was about
to say, nobody else seems to be

405
00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:30.079
getting super perverse. We just talked
about a scene where Clinton Howard is demonstrating

406
00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:34.319
with a sex doll. Maybe that's
not the best argument, but I don't

407
00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:37.400
know. Their tone just seems to
hit. But they could have gone to

408
00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:41.519
a more extreme of that. I
see what you're saying. You know,

409
00:29:41.640 --> 00:29:44.240
you know, they easyly could have
had a new scene with Riff, but

410
00:29:44.240 --> 00:29:45.799
they held off. You know,
you see her from the back, you

411
00:29:45.799 --> 00:29:48.720
know, yeah, don't we don't
see anything. I respect that, I

412
00:29:48.759 --> 00:29:52.799
really do. I do too,
because it doesn't turn her into a sex

413
00:29:52.839 --> 00:29:56.440
object. Yep, right, like
she's able to be Like, No,

414
00:29:56.519 --> 00:30:00.920
I'm going to lead the school in
rebelliou and you know, I want to

415
00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:06.119
be recognized by the band. I'm
not chasing them around as a groupie.

416
00:30:06.759 --> 00:30:10.119
I'm not just you know, dreaming
about making out the Ramones. I want

417
00:30:10.119 --> 00:30:12.039
to make it as a songwriter,
and I know that I can write songs

418
00:30:12.039 --> 00:30:15.720
for them, which is the central, you know, the drive of her

419
00:30:15.799 --> 00:30:22.480
quest. So I really love that
they did that with her character and with

420
00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:26.680
the rest of this cast. That
it wasn't that kind of movie. Come

421
00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:32.000
to think of it. The Twins
also had that that note they kept trying

422
00:30:32.039 --> 00:30:36.880
to pass to Miss Togar about her
luscious thighs. Yes, God, that's

423
00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:40.039
chilling, I know, And it
popped up a couple of times. I'm

424
00:30:40.039 --> 00:30:41.599
like, would you just stop it? Yeah, I feel bad for the

425
00:30:41.640 --> 00:30:45.240
guys who played the Fritz is you
know, nothing personal guys, but that

426
00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:49.160
role you know it was creepy.
Yeah, you had to write Yeah,

427
00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:56.599
all right, Well quote this Scott
So I found one from director Alan Arkish.

428
00:30:56.759 --> 00:31:00.480
It wasn't really about rock and roll
high school. It was more on

429
00:31:00.519 --> 00:31:07.359
the lines of low budget filmmaking.
He basically he says, in order to

430
00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:10.680
do a movie for a really defined
budget, a small budget, you can't

431
00:31:10.720 --> 00:31:14.680
wing it. You've got to come
in with a real plan because you have

432
00:31:14.839 --> 00:31:18.240
so little time, so few hours, and your resources are so limited that

433
00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:25.079
you really have to know exactly what
you're doing. I can completely agree with

434
00:31:25.160 --> 00:31:29.720
mister Arkish on this. I have
directed a few very low budget films,

435
00:31:29.759 --> 00:31:33.839
so low that they barely had a
budget for crying out loud. So you

436
00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:37.839
have to go into those with a
complete plan of what you're going to do

437
00:31:38.279 --> 00:31:42.359
because you have to move fast because
you're basically I'm dealing with volunteers, but

438
00:31:42.359 --> 00:31:45.720
with them, they're dealing with people
who are getting paid at very low minimum

439
00:31:45.799 --> 00:31:49.720
wage. So I completely agree with
mister Arkish. Yeah, and it's interesting

440
00:31:49.720 --> 00:31:52.599
that you found that, And when
you said that you had a quote from

441
00:31:52.599 --> 00:31:55.559
the director, I was like,
oh, no, do we find the

442
00:31:55.599 --> 00:32:00.160
same one. We have a tendency
to do that for we do. I

443
00:32:00.200 --> 00:32:05.160
found a very interesting article that was
kind of a forty years later retrospective from

444
00:32:05.160 --> 00:32:08.599
twenty nineteen in Variety where they had
a chance to talk to Alan Arkish a

445
00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:15.160
bit, and I think he had
a very interesting thing to say about the

446
00:32:15.200 --> 00:32:21.000
movie, specifically our favorite PJ Souls
and the fact that she became kind of

447
00:32:21.039 --> 00:32:24.759
this inspirational female figure to teenage girls
around the country. Arcash had said,

448
00:32:24.759 --> 00:32:28.839
when people come up to me now
to discuss the movie, forty percent or

449
00:32:28.920 --> 00:32:32.960
men and sixty percent or women who
not only liked the Ramones but loved Riff

450
00:32:34.039 --> 00:32:38.920
Randall and the fact that she's so
determined and doesn't take crap off anyone all

451
00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:43.359
right at that, but she's funny, has a ton of attitude and could

452
00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:47.960
give a crap what you think.
So four decades later, since Rock and

453
00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:52.839
Roll High School, Arkish had a
very successful career. He was an award

454
00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:59.519
a Emmy winning television director for things
like Alan McBeal and Nashville and Heroes and

455
00:32:59.519 --> 00:33:02.799
The Good Fight. But when they
asked him what he's most proud of,

456
00:33:04.319 --> 00:33:07.960
he smiled and says, this film
is my legacy, and he kind of

457
00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:10.799
choked up a little bit when he
was thinking about his days working for Roger

458
00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:15.400
Corman and his New World cast of
Misfits. I think that's a great way

459
00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:19.079
to think about this movie. And
I know that I cannot argue with you,

460
00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:22.680
Dayton. It is not a great
movie, and that's probably not what

461
00:33:22.759 --> 00:33:24.920
I'm going to go out and buy. But I respect the hell out of

462
00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:32.039
it knowing you know that what people
had put into it, the fun time

463
00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:36.480
they were having, and you know
the slice of life that it gives you

464
00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:39.559
into this time, which is part
of the reason we're even doing this series

465
00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:43.799
at all. Right, Yeah,
yeah, absolutely, And you know you

466
00:33:43.839 --> 00:33:47.599
hit on something there too that I
never really thought about Scott. Sixty percent

467
00:33:47.640 --> 00:33:51.680
of the women you know, want
about Riff. You know, they wanted

468
00:33:51.680 --> 00:33:53.960
to know about the Ramones, obviously, but I never really looked at this

469
00:33:54.119 --> 00:34:00.400
movie as a big character that Riff
really was and you know, being that

470
00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:04.200
representative for for the females. You
know, you know, she is the

471
00:34:04.200 --> 00:34:07.440
main character of this movie, even
though the movie has the Ramones in it.

472
00:34:07.880 --> 00:34:10.880
You know, she is the driving
force behind all of this. You

473
00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:14.440
know, we even see it with
her when she's playing the music over the

474
00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:17.440
loud sestem there towards the beginning.
But I never looked at it that way.

475
00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:21.920
So that gives me a little bit
more respect for this movie in that

476
00:34:22.039 --> 00:34:24.119
character. And I'm not just peaking
that up because I love PJ. Sols,

477
00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:30.079
I say one keeps saying that,
but anyway, but yeah, no,

478
00:34:30.199 --> 00:34:34.199
I didn't look at it that way. So thank you for opening my

479
00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:37.400
eyes to that. And you know
that's another reason for people to go watch

480
00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:42.519
this movie for that very reason.
So cool. Yeah, absolutely, yeah,

481
00:34:42.559 --> 00:34:47.000
all right, So any what ifs? So the big one is just

482
00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:52.199
what I already mentioned. You know, I didn't really hear about alternate casting.

483
00:34:54.639 --> 00:35:00.519
I just think if we had that. There's a music video that's that's

484
00:34:59.719 --> 00:35:04.840
U. I think it's a Pretty
Woman, So Van Halen's Pretty Woman video,

485
00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:07.079
and if you've never seen it before, look it up. It is

486
00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:13.519
bizarre. It is absolutely bizarre.
But that's what comes to mind when I

487
00:35:13.519 --> 00:35:19.519
think about what might have been with
Van Halen. Knowing you know, David

488
00:35:19.559 --> 00:35:23.400
Lee Roth and what kind of a
front man he was at that time.

489
00:35:23.519 --> 00:35:25.960
It just would have been very interesting
to see that kind of slice of life

490
00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:30.480
what about you? It really would
The only only thing that I saw was

491
00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:37.639
Eddie Deason was supposed to play Eagle
Bauer, but apparently he was working on

492
00:35:37.639 --> 00:35:42.320
Steven Spielberg's nineteen forty one so the
role was handed to Clint Howard at that

493
00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:47.119
point. So I think that was
a good decision. Yeah, I think

494
00:35:47.159 --> 00:35:50.480
I think Eddie would have been a
good but I like Clint Howard and what

495
00:35:50.559 --> 00:35:52.920
he did. Yeah, And it's
another one where it's kind of like,

496
00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:59.719
I love seeing PJ and Clint and
you know, our illustrious principal Miss Togar,

497
00:36:00.079 --> 00:36:06.000
Yeah, Mary Warrenoff and Paul Bartel
getting such big themes in this.

498
00:36:06.440 --> 00:36:12.280
Yeah, I don't see aside from
having a nice bonus of Dick Miller,

499
00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:16.440
I don't, yeah another Gremlins connection. I just beam whenever I see that

500
00:36:16.480 --> 00:36:20.280
guy's face. I don't care what
he's in. Every time he pops up.

501
00:36:20.440 --> 00:36:22.639
You're right, I just get the
biggest smile on my face. Nick

502
00:36:22.679 --> 00:36:27.000
Miller, yep, love that man, Love that man absolutely. All right,

503
00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:29.079
Well, let's talk about the impact
of this film, because you know

504
00:36:29.159 --> 00:36:32.199
that's really what we're boiling down to
on these films ending the decade in the

505
00:36:32.239 --> 00:36:37.559
seventies. The biggest one for me, Scott is, you know, this

506
00:36:37.639 --> 00:36:40.159
is a film about rock and roll. It's kids rebelling against you know,

507
00:36:40.199 --> 00:36:45.480
the system, just like we see
in other films. You know, coming

508
00:36:45.519 --> 00:36:49.800
up, we're gonna see Dirty Nancy
in the eighties and Footloose doing something very

509
00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:52.679
similar. But you and I talked
about a movie in the last season of

510
00:36:52.679 --> 00:36:57.039
a film forty five, the Buddy
Holly Story, you know, where they're

511
00:36:57.079 --> 00:37:01.000
bucking the system, you know,
because music is changing everything. Music changed

512
00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:05.599
in industry. You know, it
really wasn't about that in this one,

513
00:37:05.639 --> 00:37:07.880
because you know, it was just
a principle being, you know, the

514
00:37:07.880 --> 00:37:12.960
principal who was just trying to run
everything right. It was still the focus

515
00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:15.039
on the rock and roll and you
know, kids wanting to be kids and

516
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:21.039
explore new themes and new things,
and you were going to see that later

517
00:37:21.119 --> 00:37:22.840
on in the eighties and the nineties
and on and on and on. This

518
00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:27.639
is just another one of those movies
that is having that impact, that's just

519
00:37:28.400 --> 00:37:30.440
leading up to what we're going to
see in the future. Yep, yep.

520
00:37:30.519 --> 00:37:37.239
And I mean I don't think we
necessarily saw a lot of Obviously there's

521
00:37:37.239 --> 00:37:39.360
a sequel to this, which we
probably don't even need to talk about at

522
00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:44.519
all. No, I haven't even
seen it, to be fair. I've

523
00:37:44.559 --> 00:37:45.920
just seen a clip and I was
like, yeah, I don't need to

524
00:37:45.960 --> 00:37:53.280
see that. I don't know how
many films this necessarily inspired. Aside from

525
00:37:53.280 --> 00:37:57.800
what you've already said, I don't
think there. It doesn't feel like there

526
00:37:57.800 --> 00:38:02.960
were a lot of you know,
the Band is the Vehicle kind of movies

527
00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:08.239
that really hit. But it feels
just like the lasting impression of this not

528
00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:13.360
only for the people who saw it, but the people who were able to

529
00:38:13.400 --> 00:38:20.559
see it and kind of that cult
following. I feel like it was something

530
00:38:20.599 --> 00:38:25.280
that helped the Ramones career. Now
there might be some that argue with that,

531
00:38:25.519 --> 00:38:30.519
because soon after this they started coming
out with a couple of albums that

532
00:38:30.599 --> 00:38:37.599
weren't necessarily right for who they were, so maybe it brought them into the

533
00:38:37.599 --> 00:38:43.239
mainstream a little bit too much.
But it feels very much like around the

534
00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:47.119
time of the Road to Ruin an
album something that kind of captures that moment

535
00:38:47.199 --> 00:38:52.079
in time, and I think without
this movie, other than you know,

536
00:38:52.199 --> 00:38:54.000
bootleg footage or something like that,
you're gonna lose those kind of things.

537
00:38:54.599 --> 00:38:59.679
So if anything, it just helps
to kind of perpetuate the Ramones and what

538
00:38:59.679 --> 00:39:04.800
they were about at that time and
give you a gateway to get into them.

539
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:08.400
Overall, absolutely, I couldn't agree
more with that. Scott Will said,

540
00:39:08.679 --> 00:39:13.760
all right, so where did you
watch this at? I ended up

541
00:39:13.800 --> 00:39:19.119
watching this on the Roku channel all
places. I know it's available in a

542
00:39:19.159 --> 00:39:24.679
lot of things like plex with ads
pretty often, but I was surprised I'd

543
00:39:24.719 --> 00:39:29.599
be able to find it. One
of the Tricks was talking about movies like

544
00:39:29.639 --> 00:39:32.360
this at their forty fifth anniversary is
some of them are just very hard to

545
00:39:32.400 --> 00:39:37.960
find. And I know that.
You know, recently there have been a

546
00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:42.679
lot of famous people talking about what
Dayton's been saying all along, that physical

547
00:39:42.679 --> 00:39:46.159
media is always better than there's a
value in preserving that physical media. This

548
00:39:46.239 --> 00:39:51.199
feels like it's one of those cases
where this is something that could get lost

549
00:39:51.199 --> 00:39:54.280
to time if it doesn't have some
kind of way to survive. Yeah.

550
00:39:54.599 --> 00:39:58.519
I know. When I was we
talked about we were going to cover this

551
00:39:58.599 --> 00:40:00.159
film, I'm like, man,
I'm not gonna be able to finally watch

552
00:40:00.199 --> 00:40:02.559
that. But you're right, it
was in a bunch of places this time.

553
00:40:02.599 --> 00:40:05.840
I was shocked. I mean even
Peacock had it, which is where

554
00:40:05.880 --> 00:40:09.320
I caught the film. So yeah, it's all over the place right now.

555
00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:14.320
And you know, hey, check
it out. You know, Scott

556
00:40:14.360 --> 00:40:17.039
said it's not the best film in
the world, but definitely check it out

557
00:40:17.079 --> 00:40:21.559
with the music and check it out
for PJ Sols. Yeah, and you're

558
00:40:21.559 --> 00:40:25.920
gonna ask yourself several times what am
I watching? Right? You will it's

559
00:40:27.320 --> 00:40:30.920
not troll, I'll say that,
yeah. I mean it opens kind of

560
00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:32.599
awkward. Just just get through the
beginning there a little bit. You're gonna

561
00:40:32.599 --> 00:40:37.920
be fine, I promise once you
muscle through that it's really worth Yeah,

562
00:40:38.039 --> 00:40:43.480
it is, it is, absolutely
all right. So, as always,

563
00:40:43.519 --> 00:40:46.599
I want to thank our listeners and
hope you are as excited as we are

564
00:40:46.840 --> 00:40:52.039
of the films that we have coming
that we're gonna be talking about from nineteen

565
00:40:52.159 --> 00:40:54.639
seventy nine. There are some good
ones on the list. I know Scott's

566
00:40:54.639 --> 00:41:00.000
excited about him. I know I'm
excited about him. So I hope you

567
00:41:00.199 --> 00:41:05.599
are with us through this journey and
come back the next time, which I

568
00:41:05.599 --> 00:41:07.840
believe we're gonna be covering. Is
it Norma Ray I believe is the next

569
00:41:07.840 --> 00:41:12.599
one? Yeah? All right,
yep, so we're gonna be talking about

570
00:41:12.599 --> 00:41:15.360
that one. If you want to
leave a comment, discuss what's next,

571
00:41:15.400 --> 00:41:17.880
or even half suggestions, you can
find us at www dot a film buy

572
00:41:17.960 --> 00:41:22.039
podcast dot com. You can write
us at a film by podcast at gmail

573
00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:25.519
dot com, a film by a
podcast on Facebook and Instagram. Until our

574
00:41:25.519 --> 00:41:30.119
film reels start rolling again, go
out watch something new, watch something different,

575
00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:34.599
and who knows what you will discover
next. Thanks everyone, all right, thanks